Aiemann Zahabi’s weight lower was all however performed earlier than the information that his UFC 315 bout with Jose Aldo was not taking place at bantamweight.
Throughout Friday’s UFC 315 official weigh-ins, it was revealed that Aldo vs. Zahabi could be moved to featherweight. A number of folks with information of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Combating that the bump-up in weight lessons was as a result of Aldo was informed to cease chopping weight by the UFC physician whereas being 9 kilos over on Thursday evening. The previous featherweight champion appeared depleted on the size, however the battle will transfer ahead.
Zahabi reacted to the change whereas talking with UFC Canadian broadcast associate SportsNet, saying that he was lower than a pound away from making the bantamweight restrict when he received the information.
“So I used to be chopping my weight and I simply received into the blankets this morning, and I used to be 136.8 kilos,” Zahabi mentioned. “Firas [Zahabi] was receiving the textual content and the calls to cease chopping. ‘Jose can’t make weight, he’s 145. There’s no manner he’s going to make the burden,’ and the fee received’t enable, in Montreal, a five-pound weight distinction. So there’s no 20 p.c, we now have to do a featherweight battle. We will’t do a bantamweight battle. A bantamweight battle choice is off the desk utterly.”
Zahabi additionally posted a video of him weighing in slightly below 137 kilos on Friday morning after receiving the information.
As a result of the battle was in jeopardy of being cancelled altogether, and as a result of battle having to be contested at featherweight, the usual weight miss penalties wouldn’t apply. Zahabi reveals that his group wanted to renegotiate the construction of his contract for the battle.
“So then we received to suppose, we received to renegotiate… [because] lets say no,” Zahabi mentioned. “The battle’s off. Due to the five-pound distinction, the battle’s off principally.
“So my brother informed me, ‘What would X do?’ — Xavier Alaoui — ‘What would X do?’ He mentioned, ‘He would renegotiate and take the battle.’ … So we renegotiated with Sean Shelby, and so they gave me a suggestion that I accepted, and the battle’s on.”
